They are called the “rat squad,” “rats,” “shoo-flys” and many other colorful expletives questioning their ancestry, hobbies, loyalty and aspirations for promotion. They are the most hated and feared officers on a police department. Their job is “an endless, glamour less, thankless job that’s gotta be done” as the late Jack Webb would say. These officers “police the police” and it is absolutely the toughest job on any police department. These are the officers of the “Internal Affairs Unit” or--as the section is called in the Ann Arbor Police Department—the Professional Standards Section.

Police officers are imbued with tremendous powers under the law. Arguably a police officer has more power, on the street, than a Supreme Court Justice. A police officer is charged with protecting the public. An officer's badge is an emblem of public trust.

In order to perform these duties, police officers must at times use force, up to and including deadly force to protect the public. Police officers are trained and expected, in very narrow sets of circumstances, to take a human life without trial or judicial review and the decision to do so must be made in a fraction of a second in most cases.

With this incredible power comes a tremendous responsibility. Those with such power must be closely monitored and whether they like it or not, they are held to a higher standard than the general public. Holding officers to these standards is the responsibility of their peers, frontline supervisors, police administrators who are not afraid to correct and if necessary discipline officers and Professional Standards internal investigators.

Although it is always tough for a police officer to be under investigation by Professional Standards investigators, when it is all said and done, honest hardworking professional police officers understand that these investigators are absolutely necessary and essential to keep a department clean of corruption.

Ann Arbor Police officers respond to a report of a fight on South University Avenue on the night of St. Patrick's Day, Monday, March 17, 2014.Ann Arbor News file photo

Police departments are normally self-cleaning. I am proud to say that the Ann Arbor Police Department is a very clean and corruption free department. This is due to attentive command groups, administration that makes it clear that officers are held to a high standard of conduct and effective internal investigators to keep it clean.

When a citizen makes a complaint to the police department about an officer’s conduct, the complaint is forwarded to the Professional Standards Section for review. Complaints may also come from an officer or other city employee, who feels that another police employee is out of line and inappropriate.

The supervisor in charge of the Professional Standards Section evaluates each complaint. Is the charge serious or relatively minor?

If the complaint is minor, the case will be sent back to the officer’s shift command group to investigate. The most common complaint investigated at the shift level is, “That officer was rude!”

A complaint like that is usually a misunderstanding. Officers can be seen as curt, direct and authoritative when they take enforcement action against a citizen. Officers are trained to listen to a citizen’s side of the problem, but they are also trained not to get in an argument out on the street.

Police officers are trained to make a decision based on the case facts and evidence, take the proper enforcement action based on the circumstances and save any arguments for court. This is sometimes perceived as being “rude.” In most complaints of rudeness investigated, an officer was polite, did not swear or insult, but was firm and that was why the citizen made a complaint.

If the complaint made be a citizen is of a serious nature, the Professional Standards section will investigate. While they are investigating they will also keep the Chief and Deputy Chiefs apprised. The Chief and Deputy Chiefs will determine if the employee should be relieved of duty during the investigation and if they believe another agency should be brought in to investigate the case.

The job of the Professional Standards investigator is to determine if the officer’s actions were proper based on the Policies and Procedures, Employee Rules and Regulations and the law. There is due process and officers, like citizens in criminal cases, are innocent until proven guilty of misconduct.

If the internal investigators find that an officer is involved in a criminal activity, the case will be turned over to a supervisor in the Detective Bureau, a State Police investigator or the Attorney General’s office. Criminal cases against police officers are taken extremely seriously.

One of my duties as a Detective Sergeant at the Ann Arbor Police Department was to assist the Professional Standards Section with criminal investigations. I was tasked with investigating officer-involved shootings, in custody deaths and various nontraffic related criminal complaints against officers. Thankfully there are very few such investigations in Ann Arbor.

The Professional Standards Section does a great job at keeping the Ann Arbor Police Department the professional police department that it is. What citizens should realize is that during the course of any officers career, they will all be under internal investigation at one time or another. An officer doing their job, will get citizen complaints from time to time.

It is never easy being questioned by Professional Standards. In my career although having complaints made against me, throughout my career, I was exonerated on all the complaints of misconduct except for one—when I admitted to calling a mouthy arrestee a vulgar word that questioned his fortitude.

For that violation and conduct unbecoming an Ann Arbor Police Officer, I received verbal counseling from my shift commander that I should not sink to an arrestee’s level with name-calling. I was also informed that future similar violations may result in a suspension. Valuable lesson learned, in fact I became a Verbal Judo instructor shortly after that unfortunate incident, so that it would not happen again.

The job of investigator in the Professional Standards Section is tough. If they investigate and exonerate an officer, not much is said and most officers are still upset they had to be questioned. If they find serious misconduct and an officer is fired or asked to leave all the officers silently agree that the officer involved should have been fired.

Where I have seen Professional Standards really get officers riled up is when an officer is found not at fault for the original complaint, but disciplined for some other rule violation that was found during the course of an internal investigation.

For instance an original complaint may be that an officer was physically abusive and the investigation showed they were not. However during the course of the investigation it is found that the officer was out of their assigned patrol district or a few minutes over on their coffee break when the alleged incident took place and are therefore disciplined for these other rule violations. Peer officers will complain that it is unfair, but in the end it keeps everyone on their toes and within proper guidelines.

I commend the Professional Standards Section for keeping the Ann Arbor Police Department such a clean and professional police department.

Lock it up, don’t leave it unattended, be aware and watch out for your neighbors.

Rich Kinsey is a retired Ann Arbor police detective sergeant who now writes his "Semper Cop" column about crime and safety for The Ann Arbor News.